My husband's siblings are currently selling machines that scan your finger and tell you how many antioxydants you need. They'll then graciously offer to sell you the antioxydants, for a few hundred dollars a month. I did some research on the company for my FIL, because his kids wanted him to buy into it. The best analysis I read was from someone who said that if this were an amazing medical breakthrough, the company owners would sell the rights to a biotech firm and go retire to Cancun. They wouldn't be trolling the internet trying to recruit people who want to work at home in their jammies.

Mr. F and I roll our eyes at the late-night commercials we see selling people opportunities to work at home and make untold wealth in their spare time. "Call and order our success kit today!" they'll say.

We just know that the "success kit" tells people that they can make a ton of money by getting other suckers ...er customers... to buy - you guessed it - "success kits"!

Anyone here get suckered into any of the cookware sales from bridal shows? It was a new one on me, but I'm lucky in that I'm not desperate for the "free" vacation and my fiance always has his laptop available to research at the drop of a hat. I've gotten three calls in the last month, the last two refusing to say what kind of cookware they were selling, despite being asked point blank at least three times.

I think it was Regency cookware, but I can't swear to it. There's another one under the same corporation but by a different name. If you know anyone who's getting married, give them the warning, please!

I was almost conned into Vector (sold Cutco knives) and Primerica (insurance). The thing that made me mad about the both of these org. is that they farm names off Careerbuilder and Monster looking for people who are desperate for a job. Esp. when they pretend it is a legit. job. I asked at least 3 times at my interview if the job was commission or salary and the lady wouldn\'t answer me. So I walked out of the interview.

Ginger

I have done the Vector and it is both commission and salary. You get a commission for your sales and if it doesn\'t add up to whatever they say an hour they give you a check to bring you up to that level. I am not a good salesperson so I got that check once and then said never again.

I remember when I went to Florida with my mother a few years ago, a salesperson approached my mother when we were shopping about seeing timeshares or something then the salesperson asked her where her husband was (my father did not go with us to Disney World). He then said to my mother sorry can't show them to you as your husband isn't here.

We were going to talk to a company about buying a whole house water softener, but the only way they'd meet with us is if both of us were at home during regular business hours -- they had no early evening appointments. That's fine if that's their business model, but what family can afford to have both adults take off work to spend a few hours listening to a hard sell?

We were going to talk to a company about buying a whole house water softener, but the only way they'd meet with us is if both of us were at home during regular business hours -- they had no early evening appointments. That's fine if that's their business model, but what family can afford to have both adults take off work to spend a few hours listening to a hard sell?

That is totally weird. I used to work for one of those companies and they didn't work during regular business hours, well except for the manager and the installer.

My advice is to look into it yourself, decide if you want one, then call back and say you want one, you don't want a salesman and therefore you want a huge discount. If they fuss tell them you'll take one that someone turned in. My old company used to sell them to people like this and removed the sales commission, which was 1/3. They never had any that were turned in, but that was their deniability to get everyone from wanting 1/3 off.

I remember when I went to Florida with my mother a few years ago, a salesperson approached my mother when we were shopping about seeing timeshares or something then the salesperson asked her where her husband was (my father did not go with us to Disney World). He then said to my mother sorry can't show them to you as your husband isn't here.

I think I got us black-listed by all the timeshares in Hawaii. We used to get nice invitations for lovely weekends on the Neighbor Islands, free condo, car, & airfare, in exchange for a couple hours of hard sell. Being a civil engineer, I enjoy visiting construction sites, so I didn't mind being driven around the "new units under construction." I asked uncomfortable questions about how they got their water allocation, where's the sewage treatment plant, etc. About half way through they start cutting DH & I out of the herd to prevent the contamination from spreading. We usually get the bum's rush long before they are done with the rest of the group.

Even though we make more money now than we did when we got all these great invitations, they don't send them to us anymore. Maybe they changed marketing strategies

Logged

"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."

I remember when I went to Florida with my mother a few years ago, a salesperson approached my mother when we were shopping about seeing timeshares or something then the salesperson asked her where her husband was (my father did not go with us to Disney World). He then said to my mother sorry can't show them to you as your husband isn't here.

I think I got us black-listed by all the timeshares in Hawaii. We used to get nice invitations for lovely weekends on the Neighbor Islands, free condo, car, & airfare, in exchange for a couple hours of hard sell. Being a civil engineer, I enjoy visiting construction sites, so I didn't mind being driven around the "new units under construction." I asked uncomfortable questions about how they got their water allocation, where's the sewage treatment plant, etc. About half way through they start cutting DH & I out of the herd to prevent the contamination from spreading. We usually get the bum's rush long before they are done with the rest of the group.

Even though we make more money now than we did when we got all these great invitations, they don't send them to us anymore. Maybe they changed marketing strategies

MK I just had to say - you crack me up! I love asking tough questions as well - particularly when I get the impression people have taken one look at me and assumed I'm some dumb blonde who knows nuthin' about nuthin'.

buttercup_anne

I had friends who got sucked into an MLM something bad. They're both fairly intelligent people, but never had any discernable business sense. So imagine my surprise when I learned that they had BOTH quit their jobs so that they could "work on their business". Business? Hmmm...ok, good for them, I thought. Until they sent me a link to their website. MLM all the way baby!

I think they finally figured it out and got real jobs again, but oh boy, those few months must have been rough.

My own MLM story: I met a lady at a church function when I was living in DC. We were talking, and somehow the topic of past experiences came up, and I mentioned that I had dabbled in business and sales a bit. Well, "interest in business" combined with "young and dumb" (how she must have seen me, I was 22 at the time) to become her inviting me to perhaps join her in her business. I wasn't really interested, but when she invited me to one of her "company meetings", I said ok. One never knows when opportunity will knock, right? Riiiiiiiiigggggggghhhhhhhhhtttt. So, I show up at this "company meeting" and knew the second I got there that I got suckered. 50-60 lost looking souls in a room with a podium and informational pamphlets does not a company meeting make. It was more like an indoctrination ceremony. I hightailed it out of there as fast as I could, and never spoke to the woman again.

Within the past few years, once in a while in the mail I will get an invitation to a FREE DINNER! - but I have to sit through a group such-and-such company meeting about retirement options, investments, etc., etc. other business sales pitches. I love free meals more than anybody, but it's not worth going through the hell of someone trying to sucker me into something.

I remember when I went to Florida with my mother a few years ago, a salesperson approached my mother when we were shopping about seeing timeshares or something then the salesperson asked her where her husband was (my father did not go with us to Disney World). He then said to my mother sorry can't show them to you as your husband isn't here.

For time-shares, that's pretty much it. They want both of a couple there, or it's a no-go.

We usually visit Whistler BC once a year (we live in the Vancouver area) in the summer. One year, about every half-minute we got stopped by a time-share person. "Hello, you people seem to live in Vancouver, how would you like.." We stopped them right there - not only do we have no interest in buying a time-share there, we wouldn't come close to meeting the income requirements. We couldn't figure out how they knew we lived near Vancouver though, till we finally figured out that Dh was wearing a souvenir-T-shirt that he'd gotten from volunteering at a half-marathon in Vancouver.

Oh dear, I'm afraid I let a MK rep sucker me last week. She was one of the vendors at the membership appreciation day my health club was holding. I was just going around to each one, looking at the stuff. And I love little free samples of beauty products, so that is where she got me. I just can't bring myself to say no sometimes, so she got my personal info, such as name, address, email, and phone number. At least I did say no to the free facial, though. However, I fear I am going to get hounded through the other means of communication now, especially since I gave her permission to send me little free samples of some MK stuff.

Some are really okay. For a long time I liked their products, till I started reacting to them. And while the rep did seem to keep a huge inventory, it was nice that she usually had what I wanted right away. (She'd been with MK about 20 years or so, it probably wasn't bankrupting her). And she never once tried to recruit me - she said that she'd never do this unless a client was showing a sincere interest. After I politely told her I was getting a reaction to too many of the products, she really did accept that. Other reps might have tried "there's been a re-formulation, you really must try again..." etc.

I do understand about some reps having to off-load the inventory, though. Someone I knew years ago had a mom who'd been a MK rep for less than a year but still had a huge inventory. She and her sisters and sisters-in-law always knew what their birthday and Christmas gifts were going to be.